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D&amp;M Outlines Global
Reorganization Plans

D&M Holdings has reorganized
its global operations to move marketing and product-
development decisions closer to local markets,
bring retailers more aggressively into the productplanning
process, and stimulate technology collaboration
among its consumer and professional audio
brands and OEM speaker business, chairman and
CEO Jim Caudill said.

Other changes will improve supply-chain management,
bring efficiencies to procurement, and
move the company into new audio-related product
categories — including a more aggressive headphone
lineup — while maintaining the premium positions
of the Denon, Marantz and Boston Acoustics
brands, he said.

The changes will “re-energize the company for
growth” in its “relatively mature” product categories,
said Caudill, who came to D&M only a year ago
from Stanley Black & Decker.

During a presentation to the trade press at the
company’s headquarters here, last week, Caudill
said he has also reorganized the company’s eight business units into three divisions — consumer, professional
and OEM speakers, mainly automotive OEM
speakers. Each division now has its own global president
to provide dedicated leadership resources to those businesses,
he said. Previously the eight business units reported
to Caudill.

The consumer division president is Tim Bailey, who took
the reins six months ago and whose business experience
also includes time at Stanley Black & Decker. His division
includes Denon, Marantz, Boston Acoustics and McIntosh.

With these and other changes, such as the appointment
of the company’s first global operations senior VP, Caudill
said he is transitioning the company from a holding company
of aggregated brands and business units that operated
“almost in silos” to a global operating company with
all brands operating as part of the same team.

Collaboration among brands will enable the brands to
capitalize on their scale with vendors and, in a “big shift,”
improve technical collaboration “to better capitalize” on
“some of the best technology assets” in the audio industry,
Caudill said.

The new global operations senior VP will oversee all
three business units to improve supply-chain management,
share best practices and deliver global cost leverage in
procurement, Caudill said.

In moving marketing and product development closer to
geographic regions around the globe, D&M brands will be
able to develop products that are “consumer relevant” and
meet local-market needs, Caudill said.

“Product planning and marketing have historically occurred
in Japan,” said Caudill, and the company’s regions
have been treated as “sales and distribution arms.”

For that reason, the company is looking to hire a North
American VP who will take charge of product planning and
marketing for the Denon and Marantz home audio brands
in the region. For Boston Acoustics, those tasks are handled
by recently hired VP/GM Mitch Nollman, formerly with
Bose.

The company is also looking to hire a new North American
president for its consumer division.

Besides getting closer to local markets, D&M will improve
“transparency” to “reach out to distribution partners
and collaborate and share ideas on new products,” he
said. D&M will “be much more collaborative in the planning
process with [retail] partners.”